Tunnel Vision - Trial And Error

Tunnel Vision is written from death row by Robert Marshall, a New Jersey inmate whose case was chronicled in the book Blind Faith, and in the mini-series starring Robert Ulrich and Joanna Kerns. Back in 1989, Blind Faith was a bestseller but nobody heard from Robert Marshall; this book is his side of the story. Marshall contends that that account is highly inaccurate and so do many people who send him letters of support. Algora Publishing is not in a position to make a judgment on the judicial aspects of his case but is happy to be in a position to enable a man to deliver a message.

Here is the inside story of a headline-making murder-for-hire case that has been at the heart of the debate over the death penalty and mandatory sentencing laws in New jersey for over 25 years.

Convicted in New Jersey in 1986 in what came to be known as the Parkway Murder, Robert Marshall says he was subjected to a seriously flawed trial. In Tunnel Vision, he refutes the allegations made by Joe McGinnis, author of Blind Faith, and seeks to set the record straight. This is a story that raises serious questions about his case in particular and the death penalty in general. It makes one wonder about the justice system when one co-conspirator in a murder, who admits his guilt, can walk away virtually scot free, and another, who has denied guilt from the beginning, receives a death sentence. Readers will come to their own conclusions.

According to New Jersey Policy Reports ("moneyfornothing"), "In April 2004, a federal court set aside Robert Marshall's 1986 death sentence and ordered a new penalty phase trial on grounds that enough questions were raised by the way Marshall's private attorney handled the penalty phase of his trial that the lower court should review it. Marshall has since been represented in his appeals process by public defenders. The decision to reverse Marshall's death sentence was upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on November 2, 2005." "In the stark language of the court," writes Seamus McGraw in JUSTICE DELAYED: THE ROBERT MARSHALL STORY (Crime Library), [Judge] Irenas declared that Marshall's lawyer had failed to meet the standards expected of 'competent counsel.'

NJN (NJ public television) received the Philadelphia Press Association's Television Feature Award on June 25, 2004, for its documentary "Due Process: The Strange Case of Bobby Cumber", produced by Sandra King, which explores Bobby Cumber's conviction for his role in this case and the judge's statement that 'he would have applied a drastically shorter sentence were it not for the demands of the mandatory minimum sentence for conspiracy to murder.'